News / Inspiration

TrendsActive & VICE present: VICE Insights

Trend research shows we live in a trust crisis. This is partly due to the abundance of information, filter bubbles and fake news.
Still, Millennials have a positive view on the future. They are the ones who have the media literacy to navigate straight to the brands they trust.
How do you ensure Millennials to believe in your brand? How do you connect with them in a trustworthy and relevant way?

TrendsActive and VICE Belgium personally invite you to the first edition of ‘VICE Insights’ on Thursday, June 7. Through sharing research, strategy and practical examples, VICE Insights will help you explore how to remain relevant to millennials in the future.

Don’t want to miss out? Please RSVP now. Places are limited so let us know if you will join us.
RSVP here.

Are European Millennials all the same?

Last week we had the privilege to present in Rome for Eurapco. Eurapco brings together some of the best and brightest insurance companies from Europe. Fueled with an inspiring and collaborative spirit we came together to learn more about European millennials. We presented our trend report on Millennials and insurances. The first edition of this report was created for Achmea, but has now been translated and filled with additional European insights. An important question is; Are European Millennials all the same?

Let’s get the elephant out of the room. The answer is yes and no. It would be downright ignorant to disregard the differences between individual Millennials. There are just as many differences between Millennials and Baby Boomers as there are between Millennials from Spain and from Finland, or even between Millennials from Madrid and Barcelona. However, generations do think, feel and behave alike. For anyone working with Millennials in an organization, it is easy to confess that there is a difference in how you motivate, collaborate or communicate with them compared to other generations. Besides your own experiences, we can tell from years of research that academics agree that generation-thinking is a valuable way of structuring our world.

Generation-thinking is not something new, however it is definitely not old enough to have lost its value. For decades, social scientists from the fields of sociology, anthropology and psychology have been studying ‘the youth’ and generations. The language, culture, digital behaviour, norms, believes and values between generations differ. Even though there are differences in economic and political situation between European countries, there are substantive issues and influences that define Millennials in Europe. Much of what influences and drives the behaviour of any generation is their common experience in technological developments, cultural and societal shifts, and economic growth (or fall) of Europe overall. This common experience is shaped during the formative years of Millennials (10-25 years). Evidently, understanding generations is key to be customer-centric as an organization. More good news, by understanding a generation you understand a huge cohort of your (potential) target group. That makes it not a just a scientifically proven, but also practical way of segmenting your target groups. There are 100 million of these Millennials living in Europe. The Eurapco partners now have the insights to become Millennial-proof. Are you?

How many avocado toasts should a Millennial give up in order to afford a home in Amsterdam?

People love to make fun of Millennials, the generation born between 1981 and 1997 who are obsessed with taking selfies. More recently, Millennials have been the target of ridicule for spending too much money on overpriced avocado toasts instead of saving to buy property. Based on this comment, the BBC did some research and they created an Avocado Toast Index to show just how many avocado toasts it would take a afford a deposit on a house in 10 different cities around the world. I’m a Millennial living in Netherlands, and I was curious about what the stats and figures were for the local Dutch market. This is what I found:

Pt. 4: Do people trust technology in the Connected Society?

Hot off the press – our new Connected Society trend report of 2018 is out! To be customer-centric in the modern digital age, brands should be developing innovations and big ideas that are true to the brand and founded on insights that resonate and inspire with real human beings. In this trend report about the current Connected Society, we explored the drivers behind people’s use of technology, and in turn the new behaviours created from people’s use of technology. What is driving people’s addictive use of connective devices and in turn, how are people defining control over their use of technology? In the next few blog posts, we will be sharing our insights (in bitesize format) to these questions. But you can also download the full trend report here at this link.

The main theme of our Connected Society trend report is that people have an ambivalent relationship with technology. On one hand, they are addicted to using connected devices. Meanwhile, people are becoming more aware and increasingly questioning the role that technology should have on their lives in the state of constant connectivity. In people’s search for control over technology, not only are they questioning and redefining their physical interaction with technology (e.g., unplugging for off-line moments), they are also judging their emotional relationship with technology – trust.

The past year of 2017 has seen political upheaval, fake news, confusion and social change. People are now living in a connected, post-truth world, where public sentiment is characterised by a lack of trust. So in this social climate where distrust and suspicion is the default, who can people trust? Apparently, not governments, businesses, NGO’s, or the media. In fact, the Edelman Trust Barometer 2017 has revealed that all four major institutions (i.e., government, media, businesses, and NGO’s) have reached the lowest levels of public trust. But what about technology?

“In the last 18 months the conversation about security and privacy has moved from the tech pages to the front pages of newspapers… [and]… we’re looking for businesses to be more transparent about what data is being collected, how it’s being used and with whom it’s being shared” said John Curran from the consultancy Accenture [Source: BBC].

According to a Pew Research poll, almost three-quarters of Americans said it is “very important” that they have the right to control who can access information about them, and 65% also say it is “very important” to control what information is collected about about them. Moreover, research by Kantar TNS reveals that when it comes to data, consumers are increasingly concerned about the amount of personal data that companies know about them, and many also express the sentiment that they are on the losing end of an unfair exchange. Ironically, oftentimes people’s concerns over their privacy do not always translate into actual behaviour. Look for example at the popular online dating app, Tinder, for instance. When these 50 million signed up with the app, did they consider or are they even aware that the app is potentially collecting 800 pages worth of personal information about them?

Describing this intention-behaviour gap, researchers call this contradiction between people’s attitudes towards privacy and their actual behaviour the “privacy paradox”. But then again, research shows that it would like approximately 200 – 250 hours (equivalent to a month at work each year) if people were to actually stop and read all of them for every website that they visited. No wonder the privacy paradox exists… In anywise, despite the privacy paradox, if consumers voice that they have a need for control and that they have concerns over the privacy on their personal data, it would be arguably favourable for companies to provide their customers a great experience in return. Indeed, research by Capgemini Consulting reveals that an estimation of 64% of customers were ready to share their personal data but only under the condition that it helps improve the quality of the customer experience offered to them.

It appears that people have an ambivalent relationship with technology – they see the benefits and exciting opportunities technology could offer, but are becoming more aware of the potential risks that could threaten and/or infringe on their autonomy and control. So what can brands do with the knowledge that technology is raising concerns about trust and privacy? Give transparency and reassure people about what you do with data and technology. Reassure people and give them a sense of control over their (digital) life. In short, make sure you are trustworthy

Pt. 3: How are people unplugging in the face of tech addiction?

Hot off the press – our new Connected Society trend report of 2018 is out! To be customer-centric in the modern digital age, brands should be developing innovations and big ideas that are true to the brand and founded on insights that resonate and inspire with real human beings. In this trend report about the current Connected Society, we explored the drivers behind people’s use of technology, and in turn the new behaviours created from people’s use of technology. What is driving people’s addictive use of connective devices and in turn, how are people defining control over their use of technology? In the next few blog posts, we will be sharing our insights (in bitesize format) to these questions. But you can also download the full trend report here at this link.

In the last two blog posts (here & here), we talked about how people are using connected devices “addictively”. On the other hand we also see more and more people are taking steps to exert control over such constant connectivity. People are longing for “offline” moments and making effort to disconnect in order to be “online” and reconnect in the real world. Indeed, in the wake of fake news, filter bubbles, surveillance, and privacy breaches (the list goes on…), 2017 has been deemed as the year of “The Great Awakening“, where there is a growing awareness and realisation of the serious implications that technology play on their lives, accompanied by the potential threats and negativity. That said, in 2018 people are more actively looking for control and seeking to moderate the role of technology in the year of “The Great Reckoning”.

This widespread realization of an ‘always-on lifestyle’ gave birth to the need to unplug and disconnect. People are deliberately looking for offline-time. This is manifested in challenging oneself for a digital detox in one day or more organized for a whole week. Also phone stacking made its appearance as a social phenomenon. If you just don’t have the willpower to unplug and disconnect, well there are places, from bars to holidays where you literally don’t have the choice because wi-fi signal is deliberately blocked or made unavailable, so you can really focus on the moment and make real social human connections. It is not just the public that is doing some soul-searching in redefining their relationship with technology, even policy makers and corporate companies are recognizing the necessity for employees to unplug and disconnect. In France, a law known as the “right to disconnect” came into effect last year stating that employees have to legal right to avoid work emails outside of working hours. What’s more is that even insiders from the tech world are counter-reacting. Recently, the Center for Humane Technology was launched by Tristan Harris, former Google design ethicist, along with other prominent former tech insiders and CEO’s, is calling on the companies themselves to redesign their products with ethics, not purely profits, in mind; and calling on Congress to write basic consumer protections into law. They are trying to encourage both the tech world and consumers to move forward to a more conscious, healthy and, ethical way of using technologies.

Both insiders and outsiders are unplugging, because people want to keep control over their behavior. The reason is simple, being in control is crucial for wellbeing. So what can brands do to help people find a sense of control? People want to disconnect because they feel overwhelmed by the constant connectivity and overstimulation induced by technology. As a brand you should stop adding to the abundance and over stimulate, rather offer mindful moments in the customer journey. For example, IKEA’s Hjärtelig collection is here to help consumers unplug and unwind. Designed by Andreas Fredriksson and Maja Ganszyniec, the collection was inspired by research points from Ikea’s annual Life at Home report that people have trouble disconnecting from work when at home, experience FOMO, and are distracted by their phones. Although it’s not clear how a canopy bed can really help people fight their addiction to smartphones, but we can imagine that it’s easier to mediate, relax, and unwind from all the digital distractions at home when it is decorated by furniture and accessories that look like they came from a yoga studio.

The I-Want-What-I-Want-When-I-Want-Where-I-Want Consumer

Hot off the press – our new Connected Society trend report of 2018 is out! To be customer-centric in the modern digital age, brands should be developing innovations and big ideas that are true to the brand and founded on insights that resonate and inspire with real human beings. In this trend report about the current Connected Society, we explored the drivers behind people’s use of technology, and in turn the new behaviours created from people’s use of technology. What is driving people’s addictive use of connective devices and in turn, how are people defining control over their use of technology? In the next few blog posts, we will be sharing our insights (in bitesize format) to these questions. But you can also download the full trend report here at this link.

Technology gives almost anything we can ask for at our fingertips. Click and you shall receive with minimal effort and minimal time. With a touch of a button, we can access an enormous selection of movies on Netflix, a full library of e-books on Amazon, a huge inventory of clothes and shoes on Zalando.com and the list goes on. There is no delay. The digital world with constant connectivity has fostered the so-called “IWWIWWIWIWIW” – “I want what I want when I want where I want” consumers who expect instant gratification at a click or tap.

While patience has long been considered a virtue, it doesn’t seem to be so relevant in the current Connected Society. Indeed, according to the “The Instant Gratification Nation” report by Fetch in collaboration with YouGov, more than two-fifths (42%) of UK consumers admit that they have less patience today than they did five years ago [1]. A main conclusion from this report is that the rise in impatience is attributed to people’s almost complete reliance on technology in their everyday lives.

Intriguingly, being spoiled by the instant gratification consumers get from technology from the online digital web, consumers are increasingly expecting the same kind of treatment in the offline world. For example, the Uber you see on your phone is soon the Uber parked in front of you. Uber found that people’s expectation of how long they should have to wait for a taxi declined by 30% in one year [2].

Yes, getting what they want when they want and where they want is something that in our opinion another incentive that that further reinforces people’s addiction to connective technology. So in the online world there is no time for loading screens, and same for the offline world there should be no more queuing. The IWWIWWIWIWIW consumer is demanding. This is because the speed and instant gratification that consumers get from technology create new expectations, and therefore as a brand you are not competing with brands within your sector, but also with disruptive technology all around. Brands should therefore be instant and on demand; and look for which elements in the customer journey that could be even faster and real time.

What drives people’s addictive use of technology?

Hot off the press – our new Connected Society trend report of 2018 is out! To be customer-centric in the modern digital age, brands should be developing innovations and big ideas that are true to the brand and founded on insights that resonate and inspire with real human beings. In this trend report about the current Connected Society, we explored the drivers behind people’s use of technology, and in turn the new behaviours created from people’s use of technology. What is driving people’s addictive use of connective devices and in turn, how are people defining control over their use of technology? In the next few blog posts, we will be sharing our insights (in bitesize format) to these questions. But you can also download the full trend report here at this link.

As a social species humans have fundamental desire to connect and bond with others, and connective devices especially smartphones, act like a drug that gives us the pleasure for the social interactions that we crave. Looking at the statistics, the majority of time that people spent on their smart phone is for social-related activities. Insights from data collected by Google also reveal that messaging apps, social media apps, and email apps are amongst, if not THE, the most highly used apps for smartphone users [1]. According to a survey by YPulse, for Millennials messaging is a top smartphone activity, with social networking coming in second place [2].

Indeed, brain-imaging research reveals evidence that the reward centres of the brain light up when people are using social media. Sounds a bit narcissistic but people really do like sharing and talking about themselves. There is different research showing that talking or sharing information about themselves on social media fires up people’s reward centers (i.e., nucleus accumbens) in the brain. For example, researchers observed that when people saw their Instagram posts were liked, their nucleus accumbens lit up [3]. Or when they disclose information about themselves [4], like a status update on Facebook, AND get positive feedback it really gets the reward centers up and running [5]. Note that these are the same circuits in the brain that would be activated when you are feeling good – like eating chocolate or winning money, or even taking drugs.

In other words, people get a “high” when they use social media through smartphones because it’s rewarding. Social connections make us feel good – it gives us a hit. While the social networks formed online may be abstract, large, complex, and super modern, they also reflect universal and fundamental human tendencies that emerged in our prehistoric past when we told stories to one another around campfires in the African savannah. So from here on, brands should make sure that they give people the socially rewarding experiences that they crave. Brands should create content that encourages social interaction. For example, this could be both handy, relevant, and useful information, but also entertaining and humorous content. So think of anything that would make people want to share or would give them a digital “pat on the back” (e.g., Likes, smileys, reviews, etc.)

Sources:[1] Google. (2016, September). How People Use Their Devices What Marketers Need to Know (Rep.). Retrieved https://storage.googleapis.com/think/docs/twg-how-people-use-their-devices-2016.pdf

[2] YPulse. (2016, August 1). What millennials & teens are doing on their smartphones every single day. Retrieved from https://www.ypulse.com/post/view/what-millennials-teens-are-doing-on-their-smartphones-every-single-day1

Staying politically correct & keeping your customers happy

‘Stockholm prepares for ban on sexist adverts’ – this article started a discussion here in the office. Is this a step forward? Or is it actually backwards? Where most would agree that banning sexist ads from public spaces is a good idea, it becomes complicated when we want to agree on what actually makes a sexist ad. When people are offended by it? This seems to be an ever shifting norm, changing over time and between people.

And when does political correctness become censorship? What about freedom of expression? Of course this has been a debate as old as advertising itself. Advertisers have always been pushing boundaries and creating discussion – it’s just a smart way to generate publicity.

However, nowadays we live in a time where the voice of the consumer is becoming much more magnified. A personal frustration can lead to an immense amount of sharing and commenting on social media, creating an outrage and negative publicity for the brand. This creates more pressure for brands to be inclusive and appeal to all (apparently H&M appointed a ‘diversity leader’ after the monkey hoodie scandal). But do we want a vanilla society? Is it even possible to be completely inclusive and not offend anyone?

In a time where consumers are becoming ever more critical of the values a brand represents this question becomes more relevant. It might feel like being as neutral and inclusive as possible is the only way to go. But this safe tactic is actually a risky one – if you are constantly adjusting your brand values to the public opinion, customers get confused and you will lose their trust. So do you choose to be politically correct or do you take a stance, express an opinion that might be unpopular by some while highly valued by others? The most important to know your own core values so you can stay true to them. In spite of the social media outrage, Suit Supply still stands for their campaigns. Whatever you do, show your true colours. You might not make everyone happy – but you will appeal to YOUR customers.

FEMEverything

Women are on the rise. Despite the topic of debate often being the inequality between men and women and the issues that need solving, 76 percent of women agree there’s never been a better time to be female. The fourth wave of feminism, that we are momentarily experiencing, is creating more and more room for the female perspective, whether it is photography and cinematography (the female gaze), marketing (femvertising) or the tech sector (femtech). This is of course linked to the rise of women in the work force and businesses, representing their point of view in business and technology, as well as female led startups in which women create products that actually meet the needs of women (unlike these kind of ‘female’ products). Where pitching about menstrual cycles in male-dominated Silicon Valley boardroom seems pretty intimidating, some strong women showed that an exciting business opportunity can compensate for the initial awkwardness. And the fact they are not aiming at a niche market – I mean, half of global consumers are female – makes their success noticeable and shows the commercial opportunities to bigger players.

Taboo on menstruation seems to be slowly fading and this shift is visible in marketing and communication. Libresse took a big step with their latest campaign, showing the reality of what their products are used for, promoting the hashtag #bloodnormal. The initial version of their campaign got banned, which shows not everyone is ready to break with the taboo yet. On the digital front we see period trackers, fertility apps etc. In the physical world we see new menstrual products, often with an organic and/or socially responsible component. We came across a service that combined digital and physical: Freda is an algorithm based web service that delivers you the right amount and type of period products at the right time, so you never have to go without. Still a bit skeptical about this one – knowing your own body should not really be taken over by AI in my point of view.

Our personal favorite is the Pornhub campaign – ‘Fuck your period’ is inspired by the idea that orgasms help relieve menstrual pain and gives women free access to PornHub premium for the duration of their period. Taking down three taboos at the same time (yes, women actually menstruate, masturbate and watch porn) this one is definitely empowering.

Thick Data fuels customer-centricity

The essence of marketing was and always will be to identify, understand and serve human needs. In todays world we call that customer-centricity, because many organizations have seem to have lost touch with their customers. Hence, their challenge is to put customers centric again. But in doing so, marketers now have something that is completely different compared to let’s say the 60’s and 70’s: the means to understand the customer. We’d like to share some thoughts on the prosperous marriage of using Big Data and Thick Data to mine for consumer insights.

And yes, although we agree that any organization needs both Big and Thick data, we would argue that Big Data is useless without Thick Data. Why? First of all because we have experienced it first hand. We helped one of the biggest organizations (VodafoneZiggo) of this country to become customer centric and make the most of their Big Data by connecting it to Thick Data. Second, if you look beyond al the blabla around Big Data you’ll understand that having Big Data does not mean your next marketing strategy will automatically show itself on your screen. Join us in our thinking by reading this article.

Big Data – size matters but it’s not everything

In today’s world, many companies are rushing to consumer research that is reliant on Big Data and analytics. We can understand their enthusiasm, as indeed, Big Data does enable brands and companies to build knowledge of their customers. However, we would argue that considering only Big Data as the exclusive tool to mine for consumer insights may be a shortsighted approach.

Investing data is easy, using it to identify patterns of human behaviour and predicting outcomes is more difficult. This happens because often times data models can only provide a limited picture of the consumers and the markets. People are just very complex beings, and sometimes they are acting on motives they are even unaware of themselves. That said, while Big Data could offer opportunities and provide astonishingly detailed pictures of people’s behaviours and what they are doing, understanding the why is the more difficult. Big Data can predict a customer’s next mouse click or purchase, but what it won’t be able to tell is why they made the click or purchase. Without this insight, companies cannot truly be customer centric.

Thick Data from human sciences give context.

So Big Data can provide a lot of tactical actionability, but for true customer-centric thinking we need not just data and algorithms because even if you have a lot of data, does not mean you have a customer centric strategy. We would argue that to reach its full potential for any company to become customer-centric they need something big data explicitly does not have – context. And this is exactly where social sciences and humanities come in, and where qualitative and Thick Data could complement the use of Big Data in providing context to understanding consumer behaviour.

The Thick Data in our trend database gives such a context answers those why questions needed to become customer-centric. Why do men pay more attention to their visual appearance nowadays? Why don’t babyboomers feel old? Why do millennials make selfies? Why are yoga and mindfulness getting more popular? Why are people addicted to their smartphones? The answers on these kind of questions support organisations in understanding their customers more deeply and holistically.

Lets get married!

To be customer-centric, brands should be developing innovations and big ideas that are true to the brand and founded on insights that resonate and inspire with real human beings. In search for true consumer-centricity, companies would benefit from both Big and Thick data. Rather than a choice between prioritising Big data and Thick data, the key to success is to acknowledge that both are important. Do you want to know how we can leverage your Big Data with Thick Data? Contact us or keep an eye on our blogposts.

Make Big Data valuable with Thick Data

The marketing field is often seduced by beautiful stories on new technologies: artificial intelligence, big data, you know the drill. But what should we be really talking about? Right. About the customer. At TrendsActive we believe that marketeers should focus less on tech, and more on people. Because whenever and wherever you work, you work for people.

Chief Gadget Officer
Aljan de Boer from TrendsActive wrapped up the first day of MIE ‘18 with this message – do not degrade yourself to Chief Gadget Officer but make sure you really understand the customer. Adding on to this point, Kokke van der Werf from NN Sparklab and Julia Koster from VodafoneZiggo presented two inspiring cases.

Feeling Special
Kokke talked about how their corporate start-up SparkLab look into the future of insurance. Disruptive technologies offer hundreds of possibilities, but should technology be the starting point for innovation? No, it should not. Rather, it should be the deeper insights into the customers’ needs that form new successful business models. Bundelz, a prepaid car insurance, is a good example of a service that addresses and fulfills the needs of Millennials. Millennials are me-centric: they want to feel special and set high demands for companies.

Human Insights
VodafoneZiggo aspires to excel on customer centricity. How they do that? By linking customer data with human insights. Hearing the “ooohs” in the hall, it was clear that the audience was not expecting to hear that in the age of Big Data, VodafoneZiggo simply segmented on age and gender. Truth is, combining Big Data with Thick Data is the secret recipe for getting a more complete picture of the customer.

A recap of the presentation could be found here. If you want to stay updated, keep an eye on our website and social media. For specific questions, you can always send an email to info@trensactive.com

Instagrammism – Visual language for Millennials

Are you on Instagram? According to Pew research, 59% of 18-29 year olds use the app, as does 33% of 30-49 year olds. This means Millennials (aged 21-37) are very well represented amongst Instagram’s users, making it a platform worth investing in for those trying to reach this target group.

As I’m a Millennial Instagrammer myself, let me tell you why people are so into it. People look through their feed because they find it relaxing, entertaining and destressing. It’s just so nice to scroll through a never ending image based feed, looking at beautiful pictures that appeal to you. It gives the reading mind a bit of a break. So whether you are on the couch with a cup of tea or on the train to work, Instagram is the to go to app.

What makes the sponsored posts on Instagram so appealing? Looking at our research on Millennials we can link the success of Insta-advertising back to three of our Millennial characteristics:

These Insta-ads really seem to know what you ‘need’. Algorithms create a very strong profile based on the feeds that you follow, making for hyper targeted ads. Me-centric Millennials expects brands to know who they are and cater to their specific needs. Ads that really fit their lifestyle and interest are very appealing to them. And this fit should not only be product wise, also when we talk about visual language. Millennials are raised in a world that is becoming more and more image focused and visual language is their second nature. If a brand speaks that same language they can relate to it immediately as this language is very powerful. The age of Instagram asks for impeccable branding – it’s all about the atmosphere, the aesthetics, to be visually appealing and speak the language of your customer. People want to follow brands that create beautiful and attractive content, and brands that know what your eyes like to feast on. A great sponsored ad should be hardly distinguishable from the actual posts you like to look at. And then, last but not least, this generation demands interactivity. So to see a product that you like on the medium that you love to watch and to be able to purchase with just a swipe really feeds into this. Instagram features are increasingly expanding to have webshop functionalities seamlessly incorporated in the app. So, everything put together – giving personalized content, offering speed and interactivity, and speaking a smart visual language, are all ingredients for Instagram’s success with Millennials.

The key to happiness for people and brands

The Quest for Happiness is an age-old quest. But in modern times what does “being happy” mean for people, and how are they pursuing happiness? Importantly, what can brands do to help people in their quest for happiness? There is a huge commercial opportunity for brands that understand how to tap into the rising demand for experiences, mindful moments and happiness.

Working at TrendsActive, we’ve been keeping tabs on sociocultural trends for the last 15 years or so. Particularly, we’ve noticed that the happiness trend is really on the rise and when people talk about happiness, there are always certain themes they associate it with. Research shows people are starting to value experiences over possessions as they say goodbye to materialism. They would rather buy in on experiences like going on holidays or self-development courses rather than on consuming things. On the other hand, in today’s busy environment, people are realising that mindful moments come from being aware and appreciating the present. So how can brands respond to their consumer’s desire for meaningful experiences and their need for mindful moments?

On Thursday, January 31 I’ll be sharing my insights on the “Quest for Happiness” trend at the Marketing & Insights Event (MIE) on what being happy means for people today and how they are pursuing happiness in modern society. Moreover, I’ll also discuss what brands could do to help people in their quest for happiness. I’m very much looking forward to this event next week and I hope you’ll be there to join us

Or as Seneca said it – ‘The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned’.

So maybe, instead of beating yourself up about falling back into these comfortable, reassuring patterns of behavior that feel like your favorite snug winter coat and seem to make up part or your identity, we could try a different approach. How about just looking on the bright side of your supposedly bad behavior? Because really, who are you to judge yourself? We all have our little quirks and crazies and we might feel we need to change things only because others (be it people in our environment or the media) tell us it is ‘bad’. But is there even a good and bad? And is there ever only one side to a story? We’ve all heard about how a glass of wine day can be good for your cardiovascular system or how eating chocolate can really lift your mood, and we can go on in this way to find arguments to justify our ‘bad habits’. That saves a lot of frustration. So, there you go. Find what feels good and just stick with it.

New Year’s Resolutions – How to improve yourself in 2018?

The start of a new year seems to inspire a lot of people to make changes in their lifestyles and consumer choices. Yes, it’s that time of the year again – time for new year’s resolutions for self-improvement!

We Millennials especially are living in a time that is very much focused on performance and self-improvement – to be better at whatever seems to be a goal in itself and personal development is a lifestyle. This could result in a lot of stress, feeling a constant pressure to grow and excel in all parts of life. It is never good enough and there’re always fields that you could have overlooked or that contradict without you being aware. So you got a great job? How about your physique? Or your eating habits? Or your social skills? And you switched to a green bank while using cryptocurrency, but did you read about how much energy every bitcoin transactions costs?

This society is the perfect breeding ground for goal setting and therefore new years resolutions. We see a lot of media willingly diving in this opportunity to make a list with a nice clickbait title from the The New York Post – 9 ways to be a better person in 2018. Who doesn’t want to be a better person, right? And how convenient if someone writes out how to achieve this in nine simple bullet points. It doesn’t take a genius though to realize that there are no shortcuts and no generic answers when it comes to ‘being better’. We can take all the tips and tricks of the internet but that just keeps us chasing our own tail, creating tasks and goals that are not truly ours. The tricky thing is, we can only decide for ourselves what truly matters to us, what makes us tick, what we are willing to make sacrifices for, direct our energy to (see also the bestselling book by Mark Manson, The subtle art of not giving a fuck). So you actually only need to one thing to become a better person in 2018 – take some time out to find out what really matters to you, what your values are. And keep those in mind with every decision you make. Then you will always be sincere.

2018, that’s right!

We hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and a happy New Year’s Eve. 2018 has just started and we’re ready for it! At TrendsActive we start the new year with some big projects, which we’re excited about. We will of course keep you updated on what’s going on in our business this year. For example, in February you can expect our new trend report.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us in case you want to share your successes with us or when you would like us to think with you. For now we wish you a happy 2018!

Last minute Christmas inspiration

From our research we know that happiness is not necessarily materialistic. Rather, people are looking for experiences, preferably meaningful ones. And last week was a week full of experiences. We’ve had this winter’s first snow in the Netherlands, we enjoyed our TrendsActive Christmas dinner, we listened to (awful – according to some of our colleagues) Christmas songs, and we are still experiencing the yearly (Christmas gifts) stress. Yep, Christmas is coming…. So, let us share some last-minute, trend-based Christmas gifts to help you go beyond the boring socks, perfume, wine and so on.

As you can read in this article, using money to free-up time is linked to increased levels of happiness. “In an experiment, individuals reported greater happiness if they used £30 ($40) to save time – such as by paying for chores to be done – rather than spending the money on material goods.” So we suggest ‘time’ as a present, especially for stressed parents (succes guaranteed).

If you really would like to give an experience, you might want to give ‘sky hours’. Skyhour is a gifting platform where you can give & receive flight hours that can be used by anyone, anywhere, on over 350 airlines. With these sky hours you’ll help travel-minded people to discover new cultures or reunite with friends or family who live far away.

In case you insist on giving something materialistic, you could consider a phone that saves you from being distracted by the beeps and pings from your smartphones. For example the Light Phone – which is designed to be used as little as possible. Or go all the way with the Substitute Phone, a tool that helps smartphone addicts to cope with being separated from their mobile devices.

First day in Kyiv

We are spending this week in Kyiv as we were invited by the Dutch Embassy to share about consumer insights and trends relevant for the agriculture industry.

Today our keynote speaker Aljan de Boer took the stage at the Fresh Business Expo to present on two major consumer groups – the Millennials and the younger Generation Z. For Millennials who are me-centric, how can the agriculture and food industry make them feel special as consumers? On other hand, how can the industry continuing fostering Generation Z’s “make it happen” mentality? Not only did Aljan inspire the audience, he also surprised them with a tasting of the Sechuan buttons. A sensational experience.

Tomorrow we are again looking forward to another exciting day with Aljan hosting a trend workshop at the UCAB event; and Tracy presenting three important sociocultural trends (i.e., Connected Society, Lack of Trust & Young Generations) for the agriculture industry at the Christmas event at the Dutch Embassy. Dobra!

Interested how our insights and approach could benefit you? We offer a wide range of solutions, from inspirational keynotes to concept development. We’re happy to talk about the possibilities! Send an email to sara@trendsactive.com

How H&M’s Christmas commercial can be related to our trends

It’s the end of November and that means it’s time for Christmas campaigns again. This time we were really enthusiastic about H&M‘s commercial ‘A Magical Holiday‘ directed by Johan Renck. The commercial is actually more a short film, telling a story of a parallel fantasy world where a little girl tracks down and defeat the evil brother of Santa Claus in order to save the holiday season.

We don’t want to give away the whole story, but there are some elements in the video that can be related to our trend characteristics which we would like to share. Firstly we see a connection with our Generation Z trend, saying that this young generation has a ‘Make it happen mentality’. The film stars a little girl with a chemistry box that one day created a tiny black hole, which plunged her into a parallel universum. That’s quite different than the stereotypical girls playing with dolls. Also the fact that she is saving the holiday season all by herself shows that this little girl is capable of doing great things without depending on others. In the video you’ll see that even though no-one can give her words of wisdom or tools to help her, it still doesn’t stop her from her mission of finding Santa Claus’ evil brother. She is independent and makes everything happen on her own, a true Gen Z-er!

Besides the link to Generation Z, there are also aspects of our gender trends – especially the changing roles of men and women. The girl’s dad for example has a double role. He’s both her father who’s telling her the bedtime story and a fairy in the fantasy world. This perfectly shows the multidimensionality of modern men. Nicki Minaj stars as the mother of the little girl as well as the fabulous fairy named the ‘Wisest Thingy’. By giving her this name, H&M definitely puts the woman in charge – portrayed as a person with both great wisdom as a sensitive side, calling the little girl ‘my love’.

“It’s always important to know and learn more about your consumer target group”

Last week our Keynote speaker Aljan de Boer gave a presentation on Millennials at Dutch bank ABN Amro. We had a catch-up with Woltera van den Bosch, COE Portfolio and Marketing at ABN Grid Hypotheken, who was in the audience.

Hi Woltera, first of all thanks for your time. I would like to ask you a few questions. Let’s start! Were you familiar with the topic of Millennials? Yes, of course! They are an important consumer target group that everybody is talking about.

But did you learn something new from the presentation? Well, it was a nice refresher on what I already know. I mean, going with the rhythm of everyday life, you forget the drivers or motives of human behavior – what and why people, and in this case Millennials, of the things that they do. For me, it was good to be reminded of the importance of understanding these human insights.

Are there any insights that you can use directly in your work? Yes, we could change our website to be more accommodating for Millennials. For example, the way we explain about mortgages – we should make the website to be more innovative, interactive, and visual.

So would you recommend this presentation and why? Yes of course I would recommend this presentation! It’s always important to know and learn more about your consumer target group, not just to know their changing behavior, but the “why”. This gives you tools to serve their needs better and become more consumer-centric.

A small peak into the future with ‘Homo Deus’

After I’ve heard so many good things about the book Homo Deus by historian Yuval Noah Harari, I was happy to finally find the time to read it. In this book, Harari brings the discussion on humanity’s future and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.
Harari is, in my opinion, an excellent storyteller. Besides, he talks about topics that naturally interest me as I’m a trend researcher looking at sociocultural trends, such as free will and people’s pursuit of happiness in modern society. But the one topic that captivated me the most was Harari’s view on how the concept of “religion” has evolved and in turn changed people’s behaviours.

If I were to briefly summarise, Harari plotted a timeline of how people’s “religious” beliefs have evolved over time. In the past people believed in gods – they believed gods were responsible for the weather, for death, for wealth etc. Since a couple of centuries ago, we started to believe in ourselves and our power, better known as humanism. “The humanist religion worships humanity, and expects humanity to play the part that God played in Christianity and Islam, and that the laws of nature played in Buddhism and Daoism. Humanism expects the experience of humans to give meaning to the cosmos” (Homo Deus, p. 259).

However, looking forward into the future, Harari perceives dataism as the new religion. “Whereas humanism commanded: ‘Listen to your feelings!’ Dataism now commands: ‘Listen to the algorithms! They know how you feel.’” (Homo Deus, p. 457). The author explains that if we share data with, for example, wearable biometric devices that measure your blood pressure and heart rate 24 hours a day; allow Google and Facebook to read all your e-mails and keep a record of all your likes, etc; then the great algorithms of the Internet of Things could or would even tell you whom to marry and which career to pursue. This change in religions could be seen as a shift from objective realities (religious mythologies and the human authority in humanism) to a fact based ‘religion’ (dataism).

What I liked the most about Homo Deus is that unlike most topical articles and books on technology, networks, and digitalisation that emphasise and speculate on the future, Harari takes a different approach – he maps out and highlights the historical events that have led up to and influenced our current beliefs. Eventually he ends with a peak into the future. It’s this historian approach that intrigued me the most.

P.S., If you are curious about Homo Deus and would like a sneak preview, you could watch this Tegenlicht documentary in which the author has been interviewed (Tegenlicht is normally in Dutch, but in this documentary all interviews are in English).

Oatly knows: people trust people

Have you seen the new advertising campaign from Swedish oat drink brand Oatly? Their ads are popping up in the streets of Europe and because of their let’s say “unconventional” tone of voice there’s a chance that they’ve come to your attention:

“Thanks for your attention. You might want to stop by your local store and tryone of these oat drinks. Or not. Whatever”.

What’s great about Oatly’s campaign is that their informal, fun, and light-hearted tone of voice gives them personality. As a brand, Oatly is showing a human side. This is very smart because people don’t trust brands, people trust people (especially in the wake of 2017, the year that trust in all four major institutions – government, media, businesses & NGO’s, are at their lowest according to the Edelman Trust Barometer). Therefore it’s important for brands and organizations to know how to gain trust, and Oatly definitely deserves the 👍 for being a great example!

I’m 17 and I have something to tell you

Last time we talked about SIRE, the ‘boys should be boys’ campaign that stirred a lot of discussion about raising children and the conceptualization of gender behaviors. Recently for SIRE’s 50th year anniversary, they launched a new campaign to celebrate this milestone with a focus to the future. That said, this campaign is called ‘Listen to the future’and it is about the generation of tomorrow, better known as Generation Z (19 years old and younger).

The campaign showcases the visions of 17-year olds on the next 50 years. Particularly in a mini documentary of the campaign, this young generation shares their view on the future by discussing topics such as the economy, sustainability, and inclusiveness through 30 in dept interviews (which you can find here). Some interesting quotes from the interview reveal what their outlook is like. For example: “We will definitely have a female prime minister” and “Look at what we can do better instead of what goes wrong”.

The SIRE campaign states that it hopes to inspire people to feel more positive and hopeful towards the future after seeing the world through the lens of these Generation Z youngsters. Moreover, SIRE also says they hope to, at the very least, surprise the audience with the vision of these 17 year-olds. Watching these campaign videos, we were indeed a bit surprised. Based on our trend research on Generation Z, we know that they have a realistic mindset. However, the optimism of these youngsters in this campaign at times came across as superficial when they made statements such as “We should all be friends” and “Don’t be afraid”.

Of course, being realistic doesn’t mean one cannot be optimistic. In any case, we hope that with their make-it-happen mentality, Generation Z will be successful in translating their optimistic views into realistic actions.

How to make someone happy with ‘nothing’…

When asking a friend or family member what they want for their birthday, Christmas or any other occasion, they will often answer ‘nothing’. They will probably say they already have everything they need. Now Greenpeace (together with creative agency KesselsKramer) helps you to give the ideal gift, by designing a symbolic present called ‘nothing‘ (in dutch called ‘niks’). As it says… it’s just a box with literally nothing in it. The revenues of this present will be invested in environmental causes, such as protecting forests and the North Pole. ‘Nothing’ is available in different sizes such as ‘three times nothing’ and ‘totally nothing’ on the website.

This present from Greenpeace really taps into our Quest for Happiness trend. We know from our research that people are aware of the fact dat happiness is not materialistic. We value meaningful experiences as even more importantly.

In addition to this insight, we’d like to share that this Thursday we will speak at Mixed Emotions Live (an inspirational festival for marketing and communication professionals) to present our Quest for Happiness trend, which is all about diving deeper into understanding how people conceptualise and pursue happiness in modern society.

How technology can actually help you disconnect

We live in a connected society full of technological distractions, varying from endless scrolling through Instagram or checking Facebook every half an hour. Well, from December this year there will be an app that will help you to block these distractions*. The app called Thrive will be available for Samsung devices and could help stop the mindless scrolling. “As the world becomes increasingly connected, we need a balancing force that allows us to be in control of the technology in our lives, not controlled by it” (Arianna Huffington from Thrive).

What are the app’s features? When you’re in Thrive mode it will limit your notifications, calls and texts (except from people on your VIP list). When you’re away from you’re phone, the app will send a message to the sender telling him or her that you’re currently ‘thriving’. Additionally App Control shows you how much time you’ve been spending on apps, and also monitors your usage. If you feel that you don’t have enough willpower ‘Super Thrive Mode’ makes sure there’s no way you can override the function of the app-blocker until the designated ‘thrive’ is over.

We know from our research that in the connected society, more and more people want to disconnect from technology. The pleasant irony in this example is that they actually use technology to unconnect. So instead of only taking time off from your phone or other devices by going completely offline, you can also use technology to find balance and a healthy relationship with it.

*We know that there are more apps like this with similar functions, but we chose to talk about Thrive because it’s one of the most recent.